Stepping on toes

My response for part of my Foundations of a Christian Life final essay. Enjoy.

How might you use the lecture and notes presented in class to explain the main differences between Roman Catholicism and Protestant evangelicalism?

My father grew up with a Catholic mother and a Protestant father. The two ended up divorcing when he was young, but he still remembers how they always used their religions as leverage for arguments. As a result, my dad decided, as a young married man and father, that any and all religion would be out of the question for his own family. My mom, who really had no religious upbringing, had no problem with that idea. So, my little brothers and sisters and I grew up in a very secular household. I never went to vacation bible school, never went to church as a child unless it was Easter and our grandparents had invited us. My parents did talk about God--but he was more a Santa Claus figure to me. “Be good...because he’s watching.” Eventually, my parents’ friends and family members helped them connect to a non-denominational church and they gave their lives to Christ when I was in middle school. (As did I.) As I look back over my own story, I see that I missed out on experiencing God as a child simply because of how the Catholic/Protestant separation affected my dad. The same schism that divided my dad’s parents happened a long time ago.

The Reformation, which was the second major division of the Church, occurred in the early 16th century. Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin saw the corruption of the church and decided to take a stand against the religious leaders who were using their interpretation of the bible to control people’s lives. Luther disagreed with the church selling indulgences, questioned their emphasis on sacraments and traditions, and believed that God’s written word should be for all to read, not just the priest. John Calvin and others went on to launch this protest, and formed several denominations. All of these Protestant denominations carry the belief that salvation is obtained by faith alone, and not by going to confession, taking communion and performing your penance.

Luther and other reformers never argued that these sacraments and traditions were bad. But they acknowledged that the church was placing too much emphasis on menial things and not enough on God Himself. Furthermore, they agreed that those sacraments are not supported scripturally, and that is what made all the difference.

Today of course we know that Catholic and Protestant churches still coexist, and the differences between the two are still prevalent. We don’t see the Catholic church selling indulgences anymore, but they still hold true to their other traditions. While Protestants also practice things like baptism and communion, we (Protestants) see them as symbols of our faith. Catholics take these sacraments more seriously, though, and believe that they are actually drinking the blood of Christ when they sip the wine for communion. Thus, a big difference is that Protestants are careful to not let our traditions seem like a magical ritual.

Catholics believe in things like penance, purgatory, Mary’s perpetual virginity, veneration and prayer to saints, etc. Protestants do not believe in or practice such things simply because they have not found scriptural support.

The fundamental beliefs of Christianity are typically the same between Catholics and Protestants. We both believe God created us, that sin separated us from God, that Jesus died for our sins and rose again, and we must believe in him to gain salvation. But Catholics place more emphasis on their traditions, and on faith and works, like the book of James teaches.

Despite the shared fundamental beliefs, (and I am saying this from a Protestant worldview, I realize) I think that the Catholic church’s theology is skewed. I think that even if they do believe the fundamental truths, they have to come to terms with their other beliefs. They ritualistically practice their traditions with so much passion, they prepare themselves for purgatory, they pray to Mary, and yet they know that the bible does not affirm these things. On one hand, I know they value their traditions and their culture--so much of Catholicism is cultural--but on the other hand, I see that there may be an agenda behind these rituals. I think that the emphasis on “do this, do that,” in the Catholic church is just the priests’ desire for control, lingering from the early church times. I’ll even venture to say that I think the practice of going confession in the Catholic church is corrupt. Though the bible says we should confess our sins to each other so we may be healed, I see confession as nothing more than an excuse for the priest to feel more powerful and get into his congregation’s personal lives. I think that the authority that the Catholic church places on its priest is tragic, especially considering that the veil in the temple was torn long ago, when Jesus died. We don’t need to go through a priest in order to get to God, and I feel like Catholics can’t grasp that.

Protestants aren’t perfect, but they did challenge the system. They used their own minds to interpret the bible themselves. Sometimes Protestantism can seem more liberal, like we can just believe and not live out our faith and we’re covered. This is the essential argument between Catholics and Protestants: Catholics being too strict, Protestants being too loose and not putting in enough effort. While James does teach that faith and works have to go together, John 3:16 says that whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life. Jesus died unnecessarily if we have to work our way to heaven.

That said, I will venture even further to say that the Catholic church’s theology is costing them their congregations. Europe, which used to be the central place for the Roman Catholic church, is now becoming an essentially non-religious continent. Furthermore, Catholicism in America is declining in recent years, and controversies like molestation by priests are coming to the surface. These statistics and controversies do not mean that Catholicism is “wrong” or undergoing judgment for its flawed theology, but it should make Catholics reexamine their worldview. At the end of the day, the separation between Catholicism and Protestantism reminds me that God is complex and we will never be able to agree 100% on everything.